My thought is, the way things have gone for the Astros this year (very well, in my opinion,) it surprises me little that on their home field their ace pitcher ensures the NL will not have home-field advantage in the series. Thank you, Astros, for reminding us all of your usefulness.

It is sad to see Rocket go out like that, though. He's had a hell of a season and hopefully this is not what people will remember of his return home, especially if this is the year he hangs it up (and if he just came back to win another title, I doubt he'll return next year when the Astros are most likely in a rebuilding year.)

I love the hate the fans showed Jimy Williams, as if he caused the injuries to Pettitte and Miller and the fact that Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell are collecting unemployment. Dierker didn't get much love either, even though he never had enough pitching and his much-lauded lineup faded in October like Bonds (pre-2002) seemed to. The rumors say Grady Little is on the short list for replacements, confirming my belief that part of the Bagwell trade was to accept every ex-manager of the BoSox. Perhaps Kevin Kennedy should have interviewed Williams in the pregame and asked about his chances.

Fox's production was oddly mega-shoddy, with a few odd cuts to cameras still getting their shot, and just overall subpar work. (Joe Buck is SO MUCH BETTER on Fox Sports Midwest doing Cards games where he can be his bitter and sarcastic self rather than "the Voice of Baseball.") Although I liked the Blues Brothers promos, the opening bit was way overdone and the clips from the film clashed with the new stuff they shot. Jeanne Zelasko was hot, but useless otherwise, and the aforementioned Kennedy continues to remind us that there are worse baseball commentators than Tim McCarver. Speaking of, what was with the Yanni music? The cameras in the field were cute, but hardly the innovation they hyped ahead of time online.

A pretty boring All-Star game, as it was over after the first inning. It was a weird game in that the first four innings seemed to take forever, and then it was like everyone just gave up en masse and the rest of game just flew by.

It was pretty great seeing that asshole Clemens get lit up. My friends hatched the Bull Durham-esque conspiracy theory that Piazza was tipping the pitches in an effort to make Roger look bad.

One-M is an idiot, and will likely be fired. The Astros should be doing much better thus far this season, even without the injuries to Pettitte. I'm an NL fan, and I always pull for them to win, but my one hope this year was to see Clemens get shelled. I only wish he would have been left in longer. I hadn't thought about it until I got an IM from TheCow and read Big Bad's post and linked the two, but, this definately seems like a possibility. Everything I'd read/heard on the conspiracy theory side of things leading up to this game involved Clemens mixing up Piazza on a pitch or two..IE...throwing a slider in the dirt when a changeup was called or a heater etc, but this was awesome.

(Not Bob Kohm)

In the context of baseball, the use of drugs hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, the use of alcohol hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, womanizing hurts whom? Maybe the wife of the player? In the context of baseball, felonies are crimes against society, not against baseball. In the context of baseball, gambling is the only crime against baseball.

Gambling, in the context of baseball, is a capital offense and Rose has richly earned-- hell, he agreed to-- his death sentence. Let him hang.

Bob Kohm, co-owner of Rotojunkies.com (rotojunkies.com) , and a large market kind of guy.

I started watching a bit late, I guess. Didn't get to see the first. The rest was a bit of a snooze...

Does anyone know where one can get audio or video of the anthem presentations. They didn't show the Canadian on the TV, did they? Gord Downie of the The Tragically Hip was singing it. I am interested in hearing/seeing how he did???

Where the wild are strong, and the strong are the darkest ones, you're the Darkest One.

The Bull Durham connection has been all over the news and all over the radio this morning. I hope that is true because what better revenge for Piazza than to embarass Clemens on the national spotlight in front of his hometown fans.

Of course you would almost have to then believe than Sosa was in on the deal too with the way he "played" those first two balls out in right.

(edited by dunkndollaz on 14.7.04 0938)Folk singers are always liberal pansies, but not me.....I sing for my fellow conservatives...care to hear "Shoot the Hippie out of the Redwood Tree" ?

Wow, I enjoyed that first inning (although it is interesting to note that without Clemens, the NL would've won, 4-3). Granted, I somewhat stopped paying attention after the first (I had other things going on, and I was only listening to the game online), but I was happy by then.

I know that I wasn't the first to even think of the Bull Durham possibility - heck, I don't think it's true, I just think Clemens had an off night - but we won't hear the end of it for months. Stark has a column up on Roger's pre-game activity routine, and it makes sense to think that he was dead in the water before the game even started.

And yeah, part of me hopes the Durham conspiracy is right. (The sick, twisted side of me, but it's part, dammit.)

I kinda hope it isn't true, because they've been trying so hard to make the All-Star game legit, which isn't an easy thing to do, and for Piazza to undo that for personal reasons would be a traveshamockery.

To have the starting catcher more or less tank a game, even the All-Star Game, would be another controversy that baseball in the wake of all its other little controversies at the moment doesn't need.

You'd think that McKeon could've at least gotten the last All-Star in Montreal history into the game, eh?

What's disturbing about Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 is that both are classic propaganda. Events are shown out of order, suggesting conspiracy by confusing audiences about the sequence of events; events are shown out of context, edited to create an appearance differing from actual events; scenes of horror are intermixed with scenes of normalcy, suggesting all is horror; viewers are given no way of knowing what is fact, what is opinion, and what is made up.- Noted Warmonger Greg Easterbrook

I very much enjoyed watching Clemens get shelled, that man irks me in all kinds of wrong ways. I don't root for either the Mets or Piazza but it brought a smile to my face thinking he was smirking (maybe giggling) watching the long ball play out and his 'buddy' hitting the showers in 1.

You'd think that McKeon could've at least gotten the last All-Star in Montreal history into the game, eh?

Yeah, that woulda been nice, but who knows if it even occured to him (didn't occur to me until you said it). I personally wish managers didn't feel so obligated to get everyone into the game. I mean, do we really need 11 pitchers for the each team? Why not something like six (4 starters, 2 relievers, for example)? Or if we're gonna insist on voting 11 pitchers to the team, at least lay off the manager if he uses only half of them. The game just turns into a pinch-hit/double-switch-fest after inning #3 or 4.

I agree with ya' on the shoddy production. FOX usually does a good job with this stuff, and I was equally disappointed in Joe Buck. He usually does a great job, but seemed to be off last night. The line ".. that year Clemens lost to the Mets in the World Series". What?!

Someone needed to get the media guide and stat book away from Tim McCarver..the guy was bursting with worthless stats through the first 3 innings. FOX seemed to be big on "Player X leads the league in Category Y since timeframe Z". After Soriano got his second hit, I said "and Alfonso Soriano leads all 2nd basemen in hits since Tuesday afternoon"

I love those Blues Brothers commerical that they've been running. One funny thing I noticed about them: the whole concept is that the players are out there trying to drum up votes. So why do they show Roger Clemens, Eric Gagne, Jason Schmidt, Mariano Rivera and other PITCHERS campaigning for votes? They're fun, nonetheless.

Originally posted by dunkndollazThe Bull Durham connection has been all over the news and all over the radio this morning. I hope that is true because what better revenge for Piazza than to embarass Clemens on the national spotlight in front of his hometown fans.

Of course you would almost have to then believe than Sosa was in on the deal too with the way he "played" those first two balls out in right.

(edited by dunkndollaz on 14.7.04 0938)

One does not have to enlist Sammy in any conspiracy to get him to use the catching skills that inspired the Featherstone character in "Necessary Roughness". One just puts Sammy in right field and lets the balls hit the grass.

Originally posted by eviljonhunt81I didn't get the point of the Blues Brothers stuff. Was I missing some reference, or does FOX just not realize that the movie takes place in Chicago?

They were just playing off the "campaign" for votes (Vote for me so I can go to the All-Star Game! This Time It Counts!) by using the Brothers' campaign for Chicagoland residents to join them at the Palace Hotel Ballroom ("You there! It's ladies night!") It was unusual and cute, and better than the usual, generic promotion, if not really relevant to the game.